Taymor McIntyre: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

As news that the accused Santa Fe High School shooter won’t face the death penalty, an online rumor about another accused Texas shooter has spread online. An image showing Dimitrios Pagourtzis alongside Taymor McIntyre comparing both of their cases has gone viral. The point of the meme is to say that McIntyre is facing the death penalty and that Pagourtzis won’t and could even be paroled someday.

McIntyre was arrested in Elizabethtown, New Jersey, 2017 after a massive manhunt that stretched across the country. The suspect had escaped from Texas where he was out on bail by cutting off his tracking ankle bracelet. McIntyre, who is also a rapper going by the name Tay-K, is accused of killing a man, Ethan Walker, 21, in a home invasion in Mansfield, outside of Dallas, in July 2016. My San Antonio reported in October 2017 that McIntyre was a suspect in the April 2017 shooting death of a man outside of Chick-fil-A in the city. The victim in that shooting was earlier named as Mark Anthony Saldivar, 23. He was reportedly in a parked car with McIntyre when witnesses said they saw him run from the vehicle while screaming.

At the time of his arrest, McIntyre’s song, “The Race,” was at number 44 on the Billboard charts.

Here’s what you need to know:

1. McIntyre Is Not Facing the Death Penalty

Facebook/T.I.

As KHOU points out in their report, thanks to the Supreme Court’s Roper v Simmons ruling in 2005, the death penalty for those under the age of 18 is unconstitutional. That was followed in 2012 with a ruling that the jailing of minors for life is also unconstitutional, resulting in the scenario that both McIntyre and Pagourtzis could be paroled.

The image has even been pushed by rapper T.I. who wrote in a Facebook post, “This is America!!!! We MUST START STANDING BY OURS THE SAME WAY THEY STAND BY THEIRS!!!!! We can’t keep just throwing ours away when they fuc up,while they give they people every consideration possible …. FUCTHAT!!!! It ain’t fair,& It aint right!!! Hold Every last one of US as Americans to the same standards no matter the color of their skin. Or else we gon do for ours the same you’re doing for yours!!! Period!!!”

2. Until the Supreme Court Intervened, 17-Year-Olds Were Seen as Adults

Prior to the 2005 and 2012 rulings, the Marshall Project says that “for 100 years” Texas law had viewed 17-year-olds as adults. Speaking to USA Today, Professor Michael Radelet of the University of Colorado at Boulder, who oversees sociology, said, “The courts ruled based on the idea that those 17 and younger don’t have the cognitive development to appreciate right from wrong. Cases like this that are especially violent and an enigma make some people think they are more deserving of death, but the ruling is about the development of the juvenile brain.”

3. McIntyre Complained in May 2018 that He Had Been Banned From Spotify

In May 2018, McIntyre took to Twitter to complain that his music had been removed from Spotify. The rapper wrote, “My songs have been removed from playlists because I’m being accused of something that I haven’t been convicted for. I don’t make hate music I rap about what goes on in every hood in America. I will never let a situation hold me back from what I believe in.” Billboard had earlier reported that Spotify has new policies regarding “hate content” and “hateful conduct.” Banned alongside McIntyre was R&B star R.Kelly and XXXTentacion. In 2016, XXXTentacion was accused of attacking his then-pregnant girlfriend.

4. While on the Run, McIntyre Is Also Accused of Attacking a 65-Year-Old Man

In May 2017, while he was on the run, McIntyre is also accused of attacking a man named Skip Pepe, 65, in a park in Arlington, Texas. According to Pepe, McIntyre held a gun to Pepe’s head and knocked him unconscious. The 65-year-old was later found by a passing jogger. Pepe picked McIntyre’s face out of a lineup. During an interview with the Star-Telegram, Pepe said that the rapper was a “loose cannon,” adding, “He’s involved in a lot. This kid is like the hood of all hoods at 17 years old. It just blows me away.” After McIntyre’s arrest, Pepe’s wife, Barbara, told the newspaper the the couple was “on cloud nine.” She also said, “This has just lifted the black cloud that has been following us.”

5. One of McIntyre’s Teenage Female Associates Has Been Sentenced to 20 Years in Prison for Her Role in Ethan Walker’s Murder

In February 2018, an associate of McIntyre’s, a 17-year-old female who was not named, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for her role in Ethan Walker’s murder. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported at the time that prosecutors believed that the 17-year-old had plotted to enter Walker’s home to aid in a robbery. The Telegram quoted Walker’s father, Richard, as telling the judge prior to sentencing that the female “did not pull the trigger that ended Ethan’s life but she was an integral factor. If you take (the girl) out of this equation, I seriously doubt this home invasion gone wrong would have happened and maybe our son Ethan would still be alive.”